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06 December
Tala Pasifika Director Lealailepule
Edward Cowley is calling on MPs to support today’s second
reading of the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products
(Smoked Tobacco) Amendment Bill in its entirety .
This
new legislation recognises people who smoke coupled with
support measures to help them to stop smoking. “The three
key components of reducing nicotine levels in tobacco
products, reducing tobacco availability, and ratcheting up
the legal age to access tobacco all complement each other
and must be introduced together to form a dedicated pathway
to reach our Government Smokefree Aotearoa goal of less than
five percent prevalence for all populations living in
Aotearoa,” says Lealailepule
The key findings in the
Annual
NZ Health Survey 2022 showed a welcome decline for all
ethnic groups except Pacific people with (18.2%). Cowley
says “This should send warning signals to our lawmakers that
the current framework to achieve a Smokefree by 2025
requires this injection of new legislative change, to
support more Pasifika people to stop smoking successfully,
alongside our populations in Aotearoa who are closer to our
Smokefree 2025 goal. “The proposed new legislation measures
are evidenced based and are supported by decades of research
– seen both here in Aotearoa and on international research
platforms,” says Cowley
“Nicotine is highly addictive
and is a key component as to why people struggle to quit
smoking. Research
shows that reduced nicotine levels mean people who smoke
ingest lower levels of nicotine; cigarettes are less
addictive, and as a result people find it easier to quit,”
says Cowley.
Lealailepule says “Recently an
overwhelming wave of Pacific voices expressed via recent
written and oral submissions to this bill, their lived
experience. Many shared personal stories which talked
directly to heartache, loss, harm and death linked to smoked
tobacco products within their families. Our Pacific
communities know only too well the inequities caused by
tobacco use and that achieving a Smokefree 2025 for our
Pasifika communities will not be a reality unless this
critical legislation is supported for all New Zealanders to
live lives free from the ongoing addiction of a product that
used as intended kills fifty percent of its users.
Our
politicians in Government have a legal obligation to first
prioritise the inequitable health outcomes, particularly for
Māori & Pacific and our underserved communities. We
respectfully demand our MPs to be on the side of positive
progressive change at this time in history to maximise every
possible effort as we move closer to our goal of a Smokefree
Aotearoa by 2025 for all New
Zealanders.
© Scoop Media
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